The Little Archer

Starring: Marvin Miller (narrator), Melvin Beebe
Directed by: Patsie V. Sinkey
Rating: Approved
Genre: Short, Documentary
Length: 8 minutes
1949

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A four year-old archer makes friends with wild animals.

Review:

Tim: I'm still not fully sure what the point of The Little Archer is. It's a harmless but ultimately pointless Warner short film from 1949. It's proclaimed to be a documentary and it starts out that way- showing a talented four year-old archer who engages in target practice at his family's farm in Washington. I have a four year-old currently, so I recognize the kid has talent. The early part of this film is fine.

From there, it feels like the label of documentary starts to become strained a bit. Narrator Marvin Miller begins a voice over, telling a cute but cringe-worthy story about how the boy wants to become a hunter and ventures out into the woods alone. Along the way, he meets a baby bear, mountain lion, and deer. These are obviously domesticated wild animals. It's somewhat entertaining to see these live animals frolic together- that's fairly novel and not something we would have expected to see. The narration just makes the whole thing feel ludicrous. Miller doesn't do a bad job with it, but the script is basic and silly. I certainly didn't dislike this part, but it's hard to care about it. We get a few minutes of the various animals and the boy playing around and a forced narrative on top of it. That's about it.

The Little Archer is a perfectly fine little short film. It's ultimately a bit pointless and not worth too much of our time. The smallest viewers will likely love it, just because they get to see baby animals interacting. That's definitely the highlight of the short. For everyone else, there's really just not much here.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: N/A



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